


The Lonely Sea and Shore

by hostilovi



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Developing Relationship, M/M, Slow Burn, merman kuroko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:33:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5614057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hostilovi/pseuds/hostilovi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroko didn’t know why he saved him.</p><p>It would have been easier to let him drown, to leave him for the carrion feeders at the bottom of the ocean. It would have been easier to drag him down as a gift to the ocean, to make him into one of his kin, than it was to drag him along to the safety of land. All Kuroko remembered was seeing his deep, dark eyes and getting a sudden feeling that he had to save the man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rescuer

Kuroko didn’t know why he saved him.

It would have been easier to let him drown, to leave him for the carrion feeders at the bottom of the ocean. It would have been easier to drag him down as a gift to the ocean, to make him into one of his kin, than it was to drag him along to the safety of land. All Kuroko remembered was seeing his deep, dark eyes and getting a sudden feeling that he had to save the man.

Staring at his unconscious body where he had thrown him on the sand, Kuroko wasn’t sure his efforts had been worth it. His leg was broken. There was no telling how long he had been floating in the sea, clinging to a few broken boards held together with fraying rope. A long gash traveled down the length of one gaunt cheek, scabbed messily over. It would scar.

Kuroko felt his gills drying out and ducked beneath the surface briefly before dragging himself back closer to the man.

Two things he knew. That he should have let him die, and that he could not. He had stared into those tired eyes and seen the ocean. Home.

Kuroko pressed a hand to the man’s chest, feeling the heartbeat that pumped strong and steady beneath its shield of skin and bone. Perhaps he would live, perhaps he would die. There was nothing more that Kuroko could do to help him. Kuroko lifted him and heaved his body a little further out of the waves, then slipped away into the water.

It was a good hour before the man woke. Kuroko watched him stir from the safety of a patch of rocks, where even his glittering scales would go unnoticed.

The man seemed surprised to be alive. He touched his broken leg with a pained face, before looking all around himself.

“Thank you,” he called out to the ocean, still searching for something. Kuroko held very still, resisting the urge to sink below the waves and draw attention with the motion. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Did he remember seeing Kuroko? He would probably write it off as a hallucination, something born of his pain. Then his eyes landed on Kuroko and he smiled.

“Thank you,” he repeated. He reached to his neck, giving the leather cord he wore around it a sharp tug and tossing something small and glittering into the waves. “For you. Take it.”

Kuroko stayed where he was.

“I’ll come back here, every day. Will you come? I’d like to see you again.”

Kuroko stayed. The man fell back on the beach.

“I’ll be here. I promise. Until I can figure out a way to repay you.”

After a few more moments of hesitation, Kuroko dove for the necklace he had thrown into the sea before it could be washed away. He held it carefully. It was a simple necklace, a few shells, a rough pink gem.

Kuroko glanced to the sand where the man lay still, looped the leather around his wrist securely, and swam away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cursing his curiosity, he returned the next day, staring intently at the shore—there was a waterlogged deck, half under water and clearly abandoned, but other than that there was nothing but rocks and sand as far as the eye could see. The fishing village lay beyond this shore, further west than this small beach.

He had gotten caught in their nets once. He didn’t care much to have that happen again.

They had yelled curses at him, yelled at the gods for sending them a drowned soul instead of fish.

The man wasn’t there, so presumably he had managed to yell for aid or had dragged himself to the safety of his fellow humans’ lodgings.

Just as Kuroko was preparing to swim back, he saw a figure, limping across the sand. He sank lower in the water, watching. Waiting.

It was the man. He had come as he said he would. His leg was bound and he hobbled awkwardly across the beach with the aid of long stick, but he seemed determined to reach the place Kuroko had dragged him to.

“I’m here! Like I promised,” he called out to the sea.

Kuroko stayed where he was, hidden. This did not seem to deter him.

“I realized I never told you my name. I’m Kiyoshi Teppei, captain of the good ship Charity. Or, well,” he smiled but it was a strained expression, “I was. Before the storm. But I suppose you already know that bit, little blue.”

_Little blue?_

That meant he did remember. More than that, it meant that he believed.

Kuroko stayed hidden the whole time, listening to Kiyoshi talk—telling him of the kindness of the villagers who took in a shipwrecked stranger without hesitation, telling him how his grandmother had made the necklace he had thrown into the sea for him—until eventually he limped away back to the village. Not before he made a promise to return tomorrow.

Kuroko swam back to deeper waters once he was gone. He was a strange man, that much was certain, but he liked the sound of his voice. He liked the easy way he spoke without even knowing if Kuroko was there at all.

He made him curious if he would keep his promise to return.

Kuroko dove deep, chasing after the small fish that frequented these waters until he had eaten his fill, ignoring the distant voices of his brethren. None called to him, specifically; merfolk were social by nature, but Kuroko often went ignored by his larger, more powerful kin.

He took no joy, as they did, in wrecking ships on the shore, in dragging helpless victims down to the depths as sacrifice to the ocean whenever she asked. He only took those already close to death.

Maybe because he remember too vividly the terror of being dragged down, down, down, preternaturally strong arms trapping him beneath the water until he gulped it into his lungs and drowned—

Only to rise again, reborn. The ocean’s gift. Perhaps she had felt his anger to his crewmates and thought him a good candidate. Or perhaps he had been a random choice.

Kuroko would never know.

When he returned the next day, curling safely beneath an alcove of sharp rocks, Kiyoshi Teppei was already there, reading aloud from a book.

Kuroko was drawn in by his voice, drawn in by the story he spun so beautifully. He felt regret when he closed the book, the story unfinished.

“I will be back tomorrow, little blue. Will you come?” he asked, gaze wandering over the rocks where Kuroko lay hidden.

Even if he wanted to respond, he could not speak any human tongue. Kuroko watched him limp away, leg dragging through the sand as he painstakingly made his way back.

He came back the next day.

And the next.

And the next.

A full week passed before Kuroko gathered the courage to move from the safety of his rocks, and that was only when Kiyoshi set his book aside and fell asleep on the sand without a single word.

Kuroko swam closer, closer, until he dragged him onto the shore away from the water. Close enough to touch the human called Kiyoshi Teppei. He smelled like the land, but he also smelled like the salt of the sea. The gash on his cheek was healing, but scarring like Kuroko thought it might.

His curiosity was still unsatisfied.

A few droplets of water fell from Kuroko onto Kiyoshi, making him frown in his sleep and Kuroko immediately withdrew, awkwardly rolling himself back to the waves.

Before he could reach the water, a hand tightly grasped his arm.

“Stay, little blue. I won’t hurt you.”

As if an injured human, unarmed, stood a chance against a merperson. Kuroko turned his head, baring his sharp teeth at Kiyoshi, letting out a warning hiss. Kiyoshi recoiled but did not let go.

“Please. I just want to talk. Don’t go?” His last words trailed up, like a question.

Kuroko jerked his arm free, wincing as a few of his scales came loose and flopped back into the shallows. Kiyoshi sat up violently, looking prepared to throw himself at Kuroko until he saw that Kuroko only sitting in the shallow water, waiting.

_Curiosity killed the cat._

_And the devil brought him back._

Luckily Kuroko was anything but a cat and if there was a devil, he did not believe in him.

Kiyoshi’s face brought out in a beatific smile. “You stayed, little blue! Thank you. Do you like the stories I’ve been reading? The village has quite the collection of books, I could find others.” His face fell a little as Kuroko just watched him warily. “I suppose you can’t answer me, can you?”

Kuroko shook his head and the smile came back. It was an interesting expression. It lit up his dark eyes.

“Thank you for saving me. I won’t ask why you did it, but I’m grateful.” His eyes fell to Kuroko’s wrist, where his necklace was securely tied. “You kept it. I’m glad.”

His gills were starting to dry out. Kuroko moved further into the water until the water lapped at his face.

Why did this human matter so much to him? He shouldn’t. He was only a human, one among millions. Insignificant. Kuroko had saved others, killed others.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. Will you come?”

Kuroko stared at him a few moments more before nodding quickly and slipping away. He sank far below the surface, only looking back once he reached his rocks. Kiyoshi was watching. He waved with both arms, grinning wide.

“Goodbye, little blue! Until tomorrow!”

Kuroko didn’t know why he had saved him. But in that moment, he couldn’t help but to be glad of it.

 

 

 


	2. Provider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: author has exceedingly little knowledge of oysters.

It became their ritual, every day. Kiyoshi would come without fail to the secluded beach with a book in hand when the sun was highest in the sky. Kuroko was still curious about him and his lack of fear, curious about the strange pull the human had on him.

The more he found out the more curious he became.

“Did you find anyone else?” Kiyoshi asked him one day, after a quiet spell after he finished their latest book—a book about a fearless whaler that Kiyoshi cared for more than he did. He had swum with too many whales, peaceful, graceful beasts, to be fond of anyone who would hunt them. “After the storm?”

Kuroko shook his head. He hadn’t looked for anyone else after seeing Kiyoshi floating in the water. There had been little enough of the wreckage and Kuroko hadn’t cared to go diving when there was someone to save.

Kiyoshi sighed. “That’s a pity,” he murmured, leaning back on his elbows and squinting at the sky. “Though I wonder if you really looked for anyone else, little blue. I’m sure your hands were full with me. Ah, and you never did tell me why you saved me.”

Kuroko wasn’t sure of the reason, himself.

Kiyoshi’s smile was self-deprecating, eyes wandering over Kuroko’s heavy tail, glittering beneath the surface. Blue hair, blue scales. Many things had changed after the ocean had taken him—chosen him. Not his eyes though. Those had always been blue.

“Another time, perhaps, you’ll tell me all about it.”

That remark didn’t seem deserving of any type of response, so Kuroko just ducked beneath the water, breathing in gratefully, gills flaring wide, before rising up once more. He shook his head to get the hair out of his eyes, spraying water on Kiyoshi. He protested the treatment, but he laughed and the shadow that had come over him passed.

“Unless—do you know how to write?”

Kuroko didn’t think he meant the runes that merfolk left for each other as warnings or signs of good places of rest or hunting. He shook his head and Kiyoshi chewed on his lower lip before brightening.

“I can teach you! Here, look,” he shifted, being mindful of his leg, and began drawing lines in the sand. Kuroko watched intently but didn’t see how any meaning could be drawn from them. “That’s my name. Kiyoshi Teppei. The ‘ki’ from ‘This tree, what is it? What is this tree?’ and the ‘kichi’ of ‘good luck’ and it’s Kiyoshi. Then take the ‘tetsu’ in ‘dumbbell’ and the ‘hira’ in ‘lowly employee’ and you get Teppei!”

Kuroko nodded, pretending his strange words made sense. Kiyoshi drew more lines.

“And this is you. Little blue.”

Kuroko let out a click of irritation, making Kiyoshi startle slightly, then laugh.

“I guess that’s not really your name. It’s the only name I know you by though. Hey, tell me your name? How does it sound when you say it?”

Kuroko hesitated. The language of the merfolk was far more abstract than human languages. There were subtleties to everything, and names were less of a name and more of a sense. He chirped it out anyway. Kuroko Tetsuya. The reflection on the water when a shadow passed over the sun.

“Well, it sure sounds pretty when you say it. Tell you what, I keep teaching you, maybe you can figure out which characters make up your name. Do you want to try, little blue?”

He did, more than anything.

Kiyoshi instructed him until the sun was low in the sky, too low for Kiyoshi to see clearly by. But he stayed a little while longer, talking with him.

“I don’t suppose you’ve met any of the people who live here, have you? They’re kind people.”

Kuroko was more well-acquainted with them than he cared to be. He narrowed his eyes, tail lashing once beneath the water’s surface, but Kiyoshi didn’t seem to take notice of his agitation.

“I only wish I could do something to repay them,” he said, leaning back on his elbows with a sigh. “With my leg the way it is, I’m next to useless.”

How long would it take to heal? Kuroko didn’t know. He had had his wrist snapped once before and it had healed in a matter of days. But Kiyoshi was human and his leg obviously still pained him. He glanced at it, curious, but saw nothing but the bandages and splint holding it straight.

“And I can’t even begin to repay you, little blue.”

Kuroko shook his head. He wasn’t looking for repayment. It was enough that he brought his stories, enough that he had kept his strange and boastful promise to return every single day for him.

“Don’t be like that—you have to let me try.”

Kuroko shook his head again, but Kiyoshi gently grabbed hold of his jaw, keeping his head still. Kuroko could move free easily but he held still like he wanted, watching him closely, carefully. Kiyoshi’s skin was warm on his, soft against the scales that wound up his neck, softer against the exposed skin of his face. He could feel every whorl and every callous.

He could feel, too, the strength in his fingers, just like when he had grabbed him that first time.

Maybe tomorrow he would bring Kiyoshi a gift. He had spotted some oysters on his way there and intended to have them for himself, but if it would assuage the guilt in Kiyoshi’s expression, it would be worth losing them.

Kiyoshi asked the same thing he always did. _I’ll be back tomorrow, will you come?_ There hadn’t been a single day that Kuroko had missed yet but he still asked. Like he needed to make certain of it. Was he as curious about Kuroko as Kuroko was about him? It was the only explanation for his continuing visits that he could think of.

Kuroko swam off, his head full of lines, and his stomach grumbling.

Kuroko left quickly for deeper waters, gathering kelp as he went along until he had enough to weave together into a bag to carry his oysters. He gathered them and returned to the beach, sequestering the bag safely among the rocks before leaving again to hunt down some fish.

It was starting to become meager pickings, near the village. Kuroko wondered if they had noticed yet, if they recognized it as a sign of a drowned soul hunting in their waters. He wondered how long it would take for them to lay traps for him, once they did realize.

He would just have to keep a close eye.

And soon he would have to leave, to go for a real hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The next day he was so full of excitement at the prospect of presenting Kiyoshi with the gift that he arrived long before he did. He passed the time tracing the few characters Kiyoshi had taught him on the smooth surface of the rocks.

He heard Kiyoshi call out to him eventually and swam over, bag in hands.

“What’s this, little blue?” he asked, bemused by the mess of kelp Kuroko was trying to hand over. Kuroko frowned and pressed it towards him insistently until he took it from him. He peered inside and looked between the oysters and Kuroko a few times. “You got oysters for me?”

Kuroko pointed in the direction of the village, hoping he would understand.

“For the villagers?”

Kuroko shook his head. He moved closer, jabbing a finger into Kiyoshi’s chest and pointing again to the village. If Kiyoshi was unnerved by their proximity he gave no sign of it.

“For me…to give the villagers.” Kuroko nodded. Kiyoshi exhaled. “You sure took what I said about wanting to repay them seriously. But I can’t give this to them.”

Kuroko let out a hiss without thinking. _Why not?_ Kiyoshi gently pressed the bag back into his hands, their skin brushing as he did so.

“They’ll wonder how I got them. I can’t tell them the truth or they might try to chase you away. They’re kind, but they’re superstitious. And I can’t say I got them myself—I can’t swim with this leg, let alone dive deep enough for these.”

Kuroko hadn’t thought about all that. He had just wanted to help. The anticipation of seeing Kiyoshi smile, of seeing him more at ease, faded, leaving him feeling heavy. Humans were complicated. The ocean was much easier to understand.

“I appreciate it, little blue. I really do. Here, why don’t we eat them together? I’d hate for your hard work to go to waste.”

After a beat of hesitation, Kuroko nodded. Kiyoshi set the kelp bag on the sand, pulling out one of the oysters and cracking it open easily between his large hands.

 Kuroko kept shooting him glances while they ate, intrigued by the strength in his grip and the enthusiasm with which he ate. Between the two of them, it didn’t take long to devour the oysters.

“Ah!”

Kiyoshi held out a tiny, irregularly shaped pearl with a pleased smile. “Here, you take it, little blue.”

Kuroko shook his head. What use did he have for a pearl?

“I insist, c’mon. It’s good luck.”

Kuroko sincerely doubted that, but allowed Kiyoshi to press it into his palm. His fingers curled around the small thing automatically, and he knew, even then, that he would keep it safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took a long time for Kuroko to find a sizeable fish, and by the time he did, he was tempted to eat it himself. But he wanted it for Kiyoshi, wanted to be able to make him smile, to provide him with something of use—in exchange for all the books. For the company.

For all that Kuroko was not alone in the ocean, it could be very lonely.

He broke the neck with a single bite and carried it away.

When Kuroko finally arrived, Kiyoshi was sitting on the dock, his good leg draped in the water and the bad one stretched out carefully in front of him. He smiled when Kiyoshi waved to him, knowing he couldn’t see his expression through the water, even calm as it was today.

“What’s that you’ve got, little blue?” he asked as Kuroko swam up to the dock.

Kuroko heaved the fish into his lap, almost feeling shy. Kiyoshi startled, but got a hold of it so it didn’t fall back into the water.

“For me?” Kuroko shook his head, pointed to him then the direction of the village like before. Kiyoshi’s face broke out in a slow, brilliant smile.

“You’re a clever thing, aren’t you, little blue? Thank you. I’ll have to repay you for this somehow, too.”

A new book was sitting nearby but Kiyoshi made no move to reach for it. He stood and placed the fish on the sand before returning to sit on the dock near Kuroko. Kuroko waited, wondering. He wanted to start the story, wanted to hear Kiyoshi’s voice weave all the words together until it became something beautiful.

“There’s something I’d like to ask you, little blue, but I’m not sure how to do it.”

Tilting his head slightly, Kuroko kept waiting.

 “Is it true? The stories about drowned sailors becoming merpeople?”

Kuroko hesitated, then nodded. He couldn’t see the harm in telling him the truth. Kiyoshi sucked in a sharp breath.

“Then you remember being human?”

Kuroko’s memories of his life before the ocean were a distant, dreamlike haze. He didn’t ever think about it, which only made it seem farther away—like something that happened to another person entirely. In a way, it had.

He felt an unpleasant twinge in his tail, a ghostly remembrance of when he had two limbs instead of one. Kuroko dropped below the surface without answering, breathing in and out deeply, gazing up at Kiyoshi’s distorted form. He always asked such difficult questions.

Kuroko watched carefully as Kiyoshi painstakingly shifted until he was lying flat on his chest on the dock, face leaning close to the water. Only a foot separated them, but with the ocean between them it felt like more. He felt the vibrations of his voice, heard the far-away sound of his apology.

Kuroko let his face break the surface.

What did Kiyoshi see, when he looked at him? Monster? Man? Kuroko did not feel particularly monstrous, for all that Kiyoshi would probably chastised him for the people he had dragged down to the depths. The ocean got what the ocean wanted.

Kiyoshi reached towards him and Kuroko let out a warning chirp, showing his teeth. Kiyoshi only smiled and let his fingers trail down Kuroko’s forehead and through the strands of his hair. Kuroko held still as though transfixed, unable to look away from his eyes, deep and dark as the secret depths of the sea, unable to pull away from his warm touch.

“I’ll read the book tomorrow,” he promised. “Same time. Will you come?”

Kuroko chirped again, not wanting to dislodge the oddly soothing touch of his hand. _Of course_. Kiyoshi smiled wider and pulled away.

“Until tomorrow then, little blue.”

Kuroko, he wanted to correct him, my name’s Kuroko. But he couldn’t speak his language, nor did he know the characters to write for him. So he slipped soundlessly away into the water, turning back a few times to see Kiyoshi still on the waterlogged dock. Waiting.

Just waiting.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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